The tool shows locations for a range of turtle species across Australia and was developed through data uploaded to the TurtleSAT mobile application by dedicated citizen scientists and partner groups, as part of an initiative of the 1 Million Turtles (1MT) Community Conservation Program.
By mapping likely nesting sites for freshwater turtles, researchers, conservationists and the community will now have an even greater opportunity to take action to monitor and protect turtle nests from predators.
Associate Professor Ricky Spencer from the University’s School of Science, said that globally turtles were among the most threatened species with over 60 per cent of all species being listed as endangered, threatened or vulnerable, with Australian freshwater turtles also affected.
“The purpose of the TurtleSAT is to increase knowledge of freshwater turtle distributions and identify hotspots in local areas for future conservation through data collection and this tool is the next step forward,” he said.
Following World Turtle Day last week (May 23), the researchers behind 1MT are calling on the wider community to help them validate the tool by using it and monitoring known turtle nest locations for signs of disturbance.
Details: 1millionturtles.com.
